Day 92 - WELLINGTON!
Well here I am at last, Wellington baby!

I was expecting lots from this place and really it hasn't disappointed me so far. Ok, it's cold, wet, and windy, but nothing very surprising considering winter just started over there. Yis, it's your turn to enjoy tee-shirts and jandals while I'm out there shopping for gloves, scarves and hats! But apart from the obvious winter season's little disagreements it's a wonderful city. So lively and energetic, charming and entertaining. I've never felt like this when in Auckland, it was just one other big city, in New Zealand right, but still one big city. Wellington has a soul somehow, something I didn't feel while up North, and I'm very motivated to stay a few months there. There are many streets to walk around to enjoy the life around and shop, and dozens and dozens of cafes to go relax in (it's said they have more cafes per capita than New York!). I think Wellington and me will just get along really well.


So far I haven't seen much though, I'm quite determined to find a job and a place to stay quick then I'll have time later to appreciate fully the city once that stressful bit is behind me. I sent some applications already and tomorrow finally I'll walk around to hand out CVs here and there. Please hire me people!! It would be wicked to get a job in a coffee place, so that I can interact with folks from here really and get a more insightful look of Kiwis and their culture. And I hope I'd get free coffees as well (right?) which would considerably help me and my budget for I'm too tempted to try them all out, especially when it's all rainy and cold outside! I'll go look around the French restaurants for a start, please let me and my accent be part of your waiting staff team, wouldn't that add some cachet to the place? I think so.

Of course I went for a first visit (and definitely not the last, especially considering it's free, wheee!) at Te Papa, which is such a great museum, beautiful, interesting, rich, interactive! You can touch a whole lot of stuffs and that makes adults as happy as the kids, yes. I need to go back and take the time to read all that I missed, but I was eager to at least get a look on my first days in the city and definitely enjoyed what I saw. I also went to take the Wellington Cable Car who got me all the way up to the Botanic Garden. Such a nice place! So English really, there's an European feeling here that I definitely never felt in Auckland (no I have nothing against Auckland, I just don't feel anything for this place). While walking around the lively streets of the town I come across THE Bucket Fountain. And I had to refrain myself from giggling madly. Moo ha ha. (It does make plenty of sense for me, I swear).


Wellington harbour from the Botanic Garden


While walking around the Botanic Garden. I felt like taking Black and White pics that day.




While strolling around there roses garden, so many of them! Beautiful!


The walkway going down to the city crosses an old cemetery (that has been mutilated after they decided to run a damn motorway in the middle of it, I wonder who's the retarded who allowed such a revolting idea). I usually really don't like taking pictures of such subject but there was something there, some kind of eerie feeling I think that I wanted to grasp.

Now, let's get on with my geeky-ness and love for creatures with hairy feet.

Today I went to WETA cave! Not a cave full of wetas as in that "charming" NZ insect, but Weta, THE Weta. You can't visit the actual studios so they put up this little shop where you can see some props (Gollum! Orcs! Wicked elven swords! Axes! Helmets! Costumes! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) and purchase some collectibles like awesome figurines and the like. They aren't even ridiculously expensive, I was expecting something along the line of several hundreds dollars for a bust or another tiny stuff, but instead most of them are between 85$ and 150$. Oh yes I'm coming back there definitely. I can't buy anything yet since it would involve carrying it around for months to come, but at the end of my trip I'll stop at every shops possible along the way I think! They also had scarves though (some made with the same kind of wool than the hobbitses capes, or Mr Tumnus' red one, oh my little fangirly heart!), so I might go back there sooner maybe so I won't freeze to death before I had a chance of seeing the majestic beauty of the South Island.

They have that small room also in which they run a maybe 15-20 min long feature, explaining how Weta came to life, their achievements, some techniques and all the different department etc. Hmmm, I just realized they didn't even show their academy awards statuettes, how modest of them. :P Richard Taylor was introducing the video, that was quite funny to see his face pop up on screen, as in hey, I know him! Well you know, as we all do, well some of you, watching the extra DVDs and all, but yeah I was please to see him presenting his company.

To stay in the LOTR/Weta/Wellywood, we went (oh yes, Olivia ditched Napier after 2 days finally and ended up in Wellington at the same time) to see Prince Caspian at the Embassy Theater tonight. Oh yes, THE Embassy Theater! *squee*



It lost its Nazgul on top but it doesn't take any of the charm of this place I think. Such a great venue to go see a movie really, deep sounds would make your seat shake a bit, I love it when it does that. I've spotted Dom, Billy and Lij (and Sean, but I don't care much you know :P)'s names and seats, then I *squee*-ed (interiorly) some more. I'll definitely come back and try to take some pics without looking much like a total fangirl and tourist. Ahem. Oh but yeah, about Narnia, it was quite awesome to see a familiar place like Cathedral Cove at the beginning:


Been there too, wheee! Though I should go back during summer and at low tide to run along the beach and jump into the water like them.

It's a weird feeling also to watch movies that have been shot here, I see the blue of the river and the mountain range behind and I know that should come along a place like this soon on the South Island. And to know that those wicked color of the sea or river are not the least fake, well maybe they still enhanced the colors I don't know, but if you look at some photos I've taken so far you can tell the water is actually THAT blue or green or turquoise, or well, freaking amazing and beautiful here. No need for much digital magic for those part, so that allows them to concentrate on the other stuffs like Aslan, the cute little mouse or the "water man" which I thought were mind blowing-ly well done. *bows down to the masters at Weta*


Alright that's all for now folks, I need to go crawl into my warm sleeping bag so that I can keep on job hunting early tomorrow! :)